Gone is the old blog.

Instead, here is a collection of my favourite quotes, and assorted bits and pieces that I enjoy, and think others would too.

Enjoy!

"I can't" isn't a reason to give up, it's a reason to try harder!

Obsession is just a word that lazy people use to describe Dedication.

Ordinary thoughts are for ordinary people

That which is hardest to do.... Do with all your heart

The only way of finding the limits of the possible is by going beyond them into the impossible. Arthur C. Clarke

Obstacles cannot crush me, every obstacle yields to stern resolve. He who is fixed to a star does not change his mind - Leonardo Da Vinci

Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.

Without fear, there is no courage.

People can alter their lives by altering their attitudes.

Don't wait for your world to change, change it yourself.

Dreams are not something to wait for, they are something to work for.

Good, better, best; never let it rest till your good is better and your better is best.

Impossible is just a big word thrown around by small people who find it easier to live in the world they've been given than to explore the power they have to change it. Impossible is not a fact. It's an opinion. Impossible is not a declaration. It's a dare. Impossible is potential. Impossible is temporary. Impossible is nothing.

Character is what you have left when you've lost everything you can lose - Evan Esar

It is better to be hated for who you are than to be loved for who you are not.

Live for today because yesterdays are over and tomorrows may never come.

Some people dream of worthy accomplishments while other stay awake and do them.
Some people make things happen, some watch while things happen, and some wonder "What happened?" Which type of person are you?
Success is a journey not a destination.

We must never be afraid to go too far, for success lies just beyond. - Marcel Proust

We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence then isn't an act, but a habit.

You can do anything in life you set your mind to, provided it is powered by your heart.

You can never live until you dare to die.

“When one door closes another one opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us.”
Alexander Graham Bell

You’ll always miss one hundred percent of the shots you do not take. -Wayne Gretzky

The difference between a successful person and others is not a lack of strength, not a lack of knowledge, but rather a lack of will.
Vince Lombardi

Failure is not an option.
Apollo 13 (1995)

Our greatest glory is not in never falling, but in rising every time we fall.
Confucius

If you cannot win, make the one ahead of you break the record.
Jan McKeithen

Risk taking is inherently failure-prone. Otherwise, it would be called sure-thing taking.
Timothy McMahon

Ninety percent of all those who fail are not actually defeated. They simply quit.
Paul J. Meyer

Success depends on your backbone, not your wishbone.

While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior.
Henry C. Link

Superman wasn't super, he just used his potential.

Those things in life that we find the hardest to do, are the things
we are the most thankful we did. ~ Annette Ueckert

Better to be a tiger for a day than
a sheep for a lifetime.~ Chinese Proverb

Pain is the best instructor, but no one wants to go to his class.
Choi, Hong Hi Founder of Taekwon-Do

1-2 out of every 100 students reach Black Belt and of those only 1 out of every 1,000 achieves his 2nd Dan. (Masutatsu Oyama, This is Karate.)

It's only through determination that we accomplish great things
Nat Peat Sensei (Yudansha Kobu-Jitsu Karate-do Federation)

The ultimate aim of Karate lies not in victory or defeat, but in the perfection of the character of its participants. ~ Gichin Funakoshi

When you look at life think in terms of karate. But remember that karate is not only karate -- it is life. ~ Gichin Funakoshi

"Karate-do may be referred to as the conflict within yourself, or a life-long marathon which can be won only through self-discipline, hard training, and your own creative efforts." ~ Shoshin Nagamine

Do not fear pain, for as long as you feel it you know you are still alive ~ Unknown

"Karate is about discipline and the first discipline is showing up for class." ~ Carter-sensei

Knowing others is wisdom, knowing yourself is Enlightenment. ~ Lao-Tzu

Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.- Jim Rohn

Don't wish it were easier, wish you were better. - Jim Rohn

If you can imagine it, you can achieve it: If you can dream it, you can become it. - William Arthur Ward

"A life lived in fear is a life half lived."

I just found a reference to a book called "The Four Agreements" - by Don Miguel Ruiz.


Basically, these are the four agreements:


1) BE IMPECCABLE WITH YOUR WORD
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2) DON'T TAKE ANYTHING PERSONALLY
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream.

3) DON'T MAKE ASSUMPTIONS
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama.

4) ALWAYS DO YOUR BEST
Your best will change from moment to moment, it will be different when you are healthy as oppsed to sick. Whatever the circumstances, simply do your best and you will avoid self-judgement, and regret.

Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.

"You might not be able to outthink, outmarket or outspend your competition, but you can outwork them"

"Without self-discipline, success is impossible, period."

"The answer is surprisingly simple. Just do right. Live an honorable life."

“I’ve never known anyone to achieve anything without overcoming adversity.”

"Do right. Do your best. Treat others as you want to be treated."

"Don't be a spectator, don't let life pass you by."

"When all is said and done, more is said than done."

"You'll never get ahead of anyone as long as you try to get even with him."

"Show me someone who has done something worthwhile, and I'll show you someone who has overcome adversity."

"It's not the load that breaks you down, it's the way you carry it."

"If you burn your neighbors house down, it doesn't make your house look any better."

"Life is ten percent what happens to you and ninety percent how you respond to it."

"The man who complains about the way the ball bounces is likely the one who dropped it."

"If what you did yesterday seems big, you haven't done anything today."

"You're never as good as everyone tells you when you win, and you're never as bad as they say when you lose."

"Adversity is another way to measure the greatness of individuals. I never had a crises that didn't make me stronger."

"If you're bored with life - you don't get up every morning with a burning desire to do things - you don't have enough goals."

"I think everyone should experience defeat at least once during their career. You learn a lot from it."

"Don't tell your problems to people: eighty percent don't care; and the other twenty percent are glad you have them"

“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it."

"I won't accept anything less than the best a player's capable of doing... and he has the right to expect the best that I can do for him and the team!"

Live for today, for Yesterday is already gone and Tomorrow may never happen.

Your weaknesses can become your strengths. Your shortcomings can become your greatest assets, your windows of opportunity, once you surrender and accept them. David D. Burns, M.D

For those that are put off by the permanency of tats, think of this: Life is not permanent. You are a not permanent. Don't hold anything back now in case of what 'may' happen in the future - if the future happens at all. Be happy and live it up now while you can. - unknown

Nothing ever changes if you remain the same

Even at the hardest points, when you're dying to give in, the stronger you stay, the stronger you will become.

You put in total effort 98% of the time. The other 2% is for drink breaks - Sensei Nabil

If it is to be, it is up to me.

To be the best, you have to do your best

Don't think you can, know you can

If it was easy everyone would do it, it is the hard that makes it great.

If you are not afraid of the voices inside you, you will not fear the critics outside you. -natalia ginzburg

A woman is like a tea bag - you never know how strong she is until she gets in hot water.

If someone betrays you once, it’s their fault; if they betray you twice, it’s your fault.

It is not fair to ask of others what you are unwilling to do yourself.

Life was meant to be lived, and curiosity must be kept alive. One must never, for whatever reason, turn his back on life.

The purpose of life is to live it, to taste experience to the utmost, to reach out eagerly and without fear for newer and richer experience.

You gain strength, courage and confidence by every experience in which you really stop to look fear in the face. You are able to say to yourself, 'I have lived through this. I can take the next thing that comes along.' You must do the things you think you cannot.

Pain is your friend, your ally, it will tell you when you are seriously injured, it will keep you awake and angry, and remind you to finish the job and get the hell home. But you know the best thing about pain?
It lets you know you're not dead yet! - From the movie "G.I. Jane"

Pain is Inevitable - Misery is Optional

Excellence is the result of dreaming more than others think is practical and expecting more than others think is possible.

Progress has little to do with speed, but much to do with direction.

The only person you should be better than in the future is yourself now

Those who say they can, and those who say they can't, are both right.

No one can make you feel inferior without your consent. Never give it.

When people keep telling you that you can't do a thing, you kind of like to try it.

Live your own life because you will die your own death

To do is to be ~ Socrates

If your not living life on the edge... you're taking up too much space

The pain of discipline is never as bad as the pain of regret"

Know your limits, not so that you can honour them, but so that you can smash them to pieces and reach for magnificence. C Carter-Scott

Far away there in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see their beauty, believe in them, and try to follow where they lead. L.M.Alcott

Our greatest glory is not in never failing, but in rising up every time we fail. Emerson

One doesn't discover new lands without consenting to lose sight of the shore for a very long time. A. Gide

This above all: to thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, Thou canst not then be false to any man. Shakespeare, Hamlet

Knowing others is wisdom; knowing the self is enlightenment.
Mastering others requires force; mastering the self requires strength.
He who knows he has enough is rich.
Perserverance is a sign of will power.
He who stays where he is endures.
To die but not to perish is to be eternally present.
Lao Tzu

A dream is an answer to a question we haven't yet learnt how to ask.

You were born with wings - Why crawl through life?

Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm.

If you try, you risk failure.
If you don't try, you ensure failure.

Challenges are what makes life interesting.
Overcoming them is what makes life meaningful.

He who angers you, conquers you.

Life is like a grindstone - whether it grinds you down or polishes you up depends on what you are made of.

Never let yesterday use up too much of today.

What other people think of you is none of your business

Be more concerned with your character than your reputation. Your character is who you are while your reputation is merely what others think of you!

If you don't like it, change it. If you don't change it, it can't be that bad

You don't drown by falling in the water. You drown by staying there

Happiness is a state of mind and as such is something that you decide upon. Decide to be happy each and every morning, regardless of what may come your way and you will be happy. Once you decide that nothing and noone can take away your happiness, life takes on a different look. -Unknown.

Remember people will judge you by your actions not your intentions - you may have a heart of gold but so does a hard boiled egg"

The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It's the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.

Never blame a day in your life.
Good days give you Happiness.
Bad days give you Experience.
Both are essential in life

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes. - Oscar Wilde

Only the open heart receives love, only the open mind receives wisdom.

To conquer fear is the beginning of wisdom. - Bertrand Russell

Human beings, by changing the inner attitudes of their minds, can change the outer aspects of their lives. - William James

Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be. - Abraham Lincoln

Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose. - Helen Keller

The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet. - James Oppenheim

If you want to box - train.
If you want to win - train harder than you ever have before. - unknown

"If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough."
Mario Andretti.

"I went to a fight the other night and a hockey game broke out."
Rodney Dangerfield.

"The word 'aerobics' came about when the gym instructors got together and said: If we're going to charge $10 an hour, we can't call it Jumping up and down."
Rita Rudner.

"If one synchronised swimmer drowns, do all the rest have to drown too?"
Steven Wright.

"We've lost seven of our last eight matches. The only team that we have beaten is Western Samoa. It's a good job we didn't play the whole of Samoa."
Gareth Davies.

Frank Layden, Utah Jazz president, on a former player: "I told him, 'Son, what is it with you. Is it ignorance or apathy?' He said, 'Coach, I don't know and I don't care.' " (1991)

Torrin Polk, University of Houston receiver, on his coach, John Jenkins: "He treats us like men. He lets us wear earrings." (1991)

A computer once beat me at chess, but it was no match for me at kick boxing. (Emo Philips)

"I know I am getting better at golf because I am hitting fewer spectators."
Gerald R. Ford quotes (American 40th US Vice President under Richard M. Nixon (1973-74) and 38th US President (1974-77). b.1913)

"A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be."
Wayne Gretzky quotes

"Karate is a form of martial arts in which people who have had years and years of training can, using only their hands and feet, make some of the worst movies in the history of the world."
Dave Barry quotes (American Writer and Humorist best known for his weekly newspaper column. b.1947)

"Educating the mind without educating the heart is no education at all"
Aristotle quotes (Ancient Greek Philosopher, Scientist and Physician, 384 BC-322 BC)

"The only thing more expensive than education is ignorance."
Benjamin Franklin quotes (American Statesman, Scientist, Philosopher, Printer, Writer and Inventor. 1706-1790

"If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people"
Chinese Proverbs quotes

"To teach is to learn twice."
Joseph Joubert quotes (French Essayist and moralist, 1754-1824)

A mind once stretched by a new idea never regains its original dimensions.
Anonymous

A teacher is one who makes himself progressively unnecessary.
Thomas Carruthers

Good judgement comes from experience, and experience--well, that comes from poor judgement.
Cousin Woodman

I am still learning.
Michelangelo

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think.
Socrates (470-399 B.C.)

Always do what you are afraid to do.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Fortune favors the brave.
Terence

Great deeds are usually wrought at great risks.
Herodotus

It is not because things are difficult that we do not dare; it is because we do not dare that they are difficult.
Seneca (3 B.C. - 65 A.D.)

It's kind of fun to do the impossible.
Walt Disney (1901-1966)

Never give up, for that is just the place and time that the tide will turn.
Harriet Beecher Stowe

Never, never, never give up.
Winston Churchill, Sir (1874-1965)

Nothing great was ever achieved without enthusiasm.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882)

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal.
Henry Ford (1863-1947)

One of the greatest discoveries a man makes, one of his great surprises, is to find he can do what he was afraid he couldn't do.
Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

The greatest mistake you can make in life is to be continually fearing that you will make one.
Ellen Hubbard

Well done is better than well said.
Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

What does not kill me makes me stronger.
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)

You can't build a reputation on what you are going to do.
Henry Ford (1863-1947)

Do not fear to be eccentric in opinion, for every opinion now accepted was once eccentric.
Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)

Don't worry about people stealing your ideas. If your ideas are any good, you'll have to ram them down people's throats.
Howard Aiken

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers (1879-1935)

I can't understand why people are frightened of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones.
John Cage

If everybody is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
George S. Patton, General (1885-1945)

If I have seen farther than others, it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

Most people are more comfortable with old problems than with new solutions.
Anonymous

Genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration.
Thomas Edison

The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own reason for existing.
Albert Einstein (1879-1955)

There's a fine line between genius and insanity. I have erased this line.
Oscar Levant

Whoever said, 'It's not whether you win or lose that counts,' probably lost.
~ Martina Navratilova, American Tennis Player

If you cannot win, make the one ahead of you break the record.
~ Jan McKeithen

You see things; and you say 'Why?' But I dream things that never were; and I say 'Why not?'
~ George Bernard Shaw

Never look down on anybody unless you're helping him up.
~ Jesse Jackson

There is a syndrome in sports called ''paralysis by analysis.''
Arthur Ashe
1943-1993, African-American Tennis Player

The first thing is to love your sport. Never do it to please someone else. It has to be yours.
Peggy Fleming
American Skater

American Hockey Player

Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then...do something. Don't just stand there, make it happen.
- Lee Iacocca

He who dares to teach must never cease to learn.
- Richard Henry Dann

George E. Woodberry: Inspirational Sports Quotes
Defeat is not the worst of failures. Not to have tried is the true failure.

Do not confuse motion and progress. A rocking horse keeps moving but does not make any progress.
Alfred A. Montapert

When I lost my decathlon world record I took it like a man. I only cried for ten hours.
Daley Thompson

I thought it was too far for me but I made it [completing 100m]
Eric "The Eel" Moussambani

An athlete cannot run with money in his pockets. He must run with hope in his heart and dreams in his head.
Emil Zatopek

I need nine wickets from this match, and you buggers had better start drawing straws to see who I don't get.
Fred Trueman

If I don't practice the way I should, then I won't play the way that I know I can.
Ivan Lendl

I'm not afraid of anyone, but sometimes I'm afraid of myself. The mental part is very important.
Justine Henin-Hardenne

To be number one, you must train like you are number two.
Maurice Greene

The only one who can beat me is me.
Michael Johnson

Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.
Michael Jordan Quotes

Most people run a race to see who is fastest. I run a race to see who has the most guts.
Steve Prefontaine

You can have a certain arrogance, and I think that's fine, but what you should never lose is the respect for the others.
Steffi Graf

Concentration, Confidence, Competitive urge, Capacity for enjoyment.
Arnold Palmer

The man who can drive himself further once the effort gets painful will win.
Roger Bannister

Cricket needs brightening up a bit. My solution is to let the players drink at the beginning of the game, not after. It always works in our picnic matches.
Paul Hogan

Mind is everything. Muscle - pieces of rubber. All that I am, I am because of my mind.
Paavo Nurmi

"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe that something inside them was superior to circumstance."
Bruce Barton

"Even if you fall flat on your face·at least you are moving forward."
Sue Luke

"I don't believe in burnout. I believe in losing your appetite."
Pat Tyson

"Pain is weakness leaving the body."
Tom Sobal, World Snowshoe Racing Champion

"There's nary an animal alive that can outrun a greased Scotsman."
Groundskeeper Willy, The Simpsons

"It's the road signs, 'Beware of lions.'"
Kip Lagat, Kenyan distance runner, during the Sydney Olympics, explaining why his country produces so many great runners

"When I was about 14 or 15, and running in a pretty muddy cross country race, one of my shoes stuck in the mud and came off. Boy, was I wild. To think that I had trained hard for this race and didn't do up my shoelace tightly enough! I really got aggressive with myself, and I found myself starting to pass a lot of runners. As it turned out, I improved something like twenty places in that one race. But I never did get my shoe back."
Rob de Castella

"If it hurts, make it hurt more."
Percy Cerutty

"Hard things take time to do. Impossible things take a little longer."
Percy Cerutty

"It's at the borders of pain and suffering that the men are separated from the boys."
Emil Zatopek

"I was unable to walk for a whole week after that, so much did the race take out of me. But it was the most pleasant exhaustion I have ever known."
Emil Zatopek describes his marathon win at the Helsinki Olympics

"If one can stick to the training throughout the many long years, then will power is no longer a problem. It's raining? That doesn't matter. I am tired? That's besides the point. It's simply that I just have to."
Emil Zatopek

"Men, today we die a little."
Emil Zatopek at the start of the Olympic Marathon

"Study the rules so that you won't beat yourself by not knowing something."
Babe Didrikson Zaharias

"Float like a butterfly.
Sting like a bee.
Your hands can't hit
what your eyes can't see."
Muhammad Ali

"If you even dream of beating me you'd better wake up and apologize."
Muhammad Ali

"Champions aren't made in gyms. Champions are made from something they have deep inside them: A desire, a dream, a vision. They have to have last-minute stamina, they have to be a little faster, they have to have the skill and the will. But the will must be stronger than the skill."
Muhammad Ali

You have to be able to center yourself, to let all of your emotions go... Don't ever forget that you play with your soul as well as your body
Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

For myself, losing is not coming second. It's getting out of the water knowing you could have done better. For myself, I have won every race I've been in.
Ian Thorpe

We didn't lose the game; we just ran out of time. ~Vince Lombardi

The more you sweat in practice, the less you bleed in battle. ~Author Unknown

Playing polo is like trying to play golf during an earthquake. ~Sylvester Stallone, 1990

I don't think the discus will ever attract any interest until they let us start throwing them at one another. ~Al Oerter

There's nothing wrong with the Little League World Series that locking out the adults couldn't cure. ~Mike Penner, Los Angeles Times

If winning isn't everything, why do they keep score? ~Vince Lombardi

I was called "Rembrandt" Hope in my boxing days, because I spent so much time on the canvas. ~Bob Hope

Sport strips away personality, letting the white bone of character shine through. Sport gives players an opportunity to know and test themselves. ~Rita Mae Brown

I cannot for the life of me see why the umpires, the only two people on a cricket field who are not going to get grass stains on their knees, are the only two people allowed to wear dark trousers. ~Katharine Whitehorn

Cricket is baseball on valium. ~Robin Williams

Squash is boxing with racquets. ~Jonah Barrington

I have to exercise in the morning before my brain figures out what I'm doing. ~Marsha Doble

If God invented marathons to keep people from doing anything more stupid, the triathlon must have taken Him completely by surprise. ~P.Z. Pearce

Everyone who has run knows that its most important value is in removing tension and allowing a release from whatever other cares the day may bring. ~Jimmy Carter

1. Throw out nonessential numbers. This includes age, weight and height. Let the doctors worry about them. That is why you pay "them. "

2. Keep only cheerful friends. The grouches pull you down.

3. Keep learning. Learn more about the computer, crafts, gardening, whatever. Never let the brain idle. "An idle mind is the devil's workshop."
And the devil's name is Alzheimer's.

4. Enjoy the simple things.

5. Laugh often, long and loud. Laugh until you gasp for breath.

6. The tears happen. Endure, grieve, and move on. The only person, who is with us our entire life, is ourselves. Be ALIVE while you are alive.

7. Surround yourself with what you love, whether it's family, pets, keepsakes, music, plants, hobbies, whatever. Your home is your refuge.

8. Cherish your health: If it is good, preserve it. If it is unstable, improve it. If it is beyond what you can improve, get help.

9. Don't take guilt trips. Take a trip to the mall, even to the next county, to a foreign country but NOT to where the guilt is.

10. Tell the people you love that you love them, at every opportunity.

AND ALWAYS REMEMBER:

Life is not measured by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away.